COMPUTEX 2012: Acer Aspire S7 ultrabook announced

We're expecting ultrabooks to get a fair share of the spotlight over at this year's edition of Computex, and it looks like that will indeed be the case. Case in point: Acer's unveiling of the spankin' new Aspire S7 , the Taiwanese titan's new ultraportable gem that comes with, get this, a touchscreen, too!

The Aspire S7, which comes in two flavors (11.6-inch and 13.3-inch), is deemed as the S3's and S5's successor which means that it comes with upgrades over its predecessors. For one, it will sport a 2.5mm-thick unibody aluminum construction, unlike the more "plasticky" frame found on the S3. It also packs a backlit keyboard and a Full HD display that you can push back 180 degrees, making the whole device lie flat on its back.

As we've said, the Aspire S7 also comes with touch capability, which makes sense since it's expected to have Windows 8 on board. The whole thing measures only 12.5mm thick and has that premium look to it which is good since it'll be going up against the likes of the Zenbook Prime and, of course, Apple's MacBook Air. Acer has kept silent on what specs it will have under the hood though we're willing to bet it will come with a combo of an Intel Core Ivy Bridge chip and at least 4GBs of RAM since that seems to be the norm for next-gen ultrabooks. Also, the 13.3-inch version will reportedly have a glass lid, like the one found on the HP Envy 14 Spectre while the smaller version will come with a metallic lid.

Acer says we could expect the 11.6-inch variant to last 9 hours on the single charge while its bigger bro could go for 12. That's definitely good news although we're curious if that will hold in real world use. Anyway, there's still no word on pricing and availability. However, a late-2012 release might be in the works or shortly after Microsoft's official roll-out of Windows 8. In the meantime, check out the gallery below for press photos.